365 Challenge #238 - a little ray of light

Who'd have thought such a little piece of equipment would be so fun! While it looks like a bunch of sawn off drinking straws in a protective case, it's actually a Honl Speed Grid. It sits over a portable flash unit (like my trusty Speedlight 580 EX II), and produces a narrow, concentrated beam of light when the flash fires.

Who gives a flying flash, you may ask? Well...we had fun at the recent Advanced Flash Workshop run by Creative Photo Workshops using it to simulate a sun beam when no such light existed.

In the shot below, Rob, our model, is posed for the light, which kinda looks like a random beam of sunlight. That beam of light didn't actually exist until we put an orange gel over the flash, and then the Honl speed grid over the gel. When the flash fired, it jammed the light down those little straw-like cylinders, into a specific and directional shape. Voila - instant sun beam! I thought it was very cool, and now have a couple of grids that I'm itching to play with.

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About Me

Hi! I'm Melanie Coppola (Surplice), a Brisbane-based photographile. I've enjoyed dabbling with cameras for as long as I can remember - and these days, I can even take the odd photo that's not blurry.

Welcome to my photography blog. It's a collection of my work and that of other photographers who inspire me. There's tips and tricks, and a whole lot of rambling about my photographic adventures.

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